


Just Can't Need You

by Musical_Lasagna



Category: Watership Down (Cartoon 2018), Watership Down - Richard Adams
Genre: F/M, Hawkbit is such a grumppppp, I feel like the only Hawkbit/Clover stan but I'll die on this hill, Modern AU, Multi, Other, Recreational Drug Use, also The Boys are absolute best friends, also there's drug use so don't read i guess if you don't like weed lol, based off characters from the first animated series
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-06-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:26:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24519922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Musical_Lasagna/pseuds/Musical_Lasagna
Summary: “Hawk, I wouldn’t want to leave if you’d stop being such an asshole.” As he spoke, Dandelion rolled his eyes at his oldest friend.“I wouldn’t be an asshole if you’d let me alone, man.” Staring at the ground, Hawkbit kicked a pebble through a hole in the opposite chain link fence. “I told you I was fine.”...For Hawkbit and his three best friends, this was a typical outing. Dandelion flushed from dancing, Strawberry sick, Blackavar running from some trouble. What wasn’t typical was the empty space where Hawkbit’s lighter should be and the lingering sensation of a girl pressed up against him while they kissed.
Relationships: Dandelion/Original Character (Watership Down), Hawkbit (Watership Down)/Original Character(s), Hawkbit/Clover (Watership Down)
Kudos: 1





	Just Can't Need You

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Thanks for peeking in on my little story. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. A couple notes: everyone here is based off the characterizations from the old show, with the exception of Blackavar. This is also set in a Modern AU but I only want to focus on Hawk and Clover for now. Please leave a comment and tell me what you think! Thank you again, I hope you enjoy <3
> 
> CURRENTLY ON HIATUS  
> kinda. I'm still writing but I decided (too late) that it might be better to upload regularly from a backlog of chapters than sporadically as I write them. I'm still writing and the story won't change but I want to write this right. Thank you. <3

The quiet hum of house music, the drunk yells and screams that came from the house on the corner seemed to seep into the ground while the wind itself as the night became filled with the hazy smoke of cheap thrills. Just barely loud enough to wake sleeping neighbors, the dimly lit porch revealed a busier party than was obvious. Twenty-somethings and a few not-yet-twenty-somethings held plastic cups and water bottles and let the night roll along with the veil in the sky that they had painted. Stars shone above and behind the smog and exhaust, and still, despite the noise, the few stars dimly peeking through were bright as day to those with a dream enough to search for them.

Watching tendrils of light float lazily towards a half moon, a young man in a well-worn hoodie standing near a small ice cooler found himself bored and a bit more stoned than intended.

“Mate, I know you didn’t drag me here, but this party sucks dog shit.”

“Look,” his friend left his own pensive gazing with a tired, seasoned look, “you know Straw’s got a thing for Dami. Just leave it mate, we’re here, we’re staying.” A lazy smile graced his face then, “Besides, the whole ‘hobo’ look you’ve got going on tonight is making me look hotter than usual.”

“Wow,” long drag, “remind me why I married you.”

The two laughed as Hawkbit swung to give his friend a punch. Dandelion, Hawkbit’s oldest friend, knowing that only he could, slid out of the way and stole one pitiful roach right out of Hawkbit’s hand with a laugh and a slap on his friend’s behind.

“HEY,” a barrage of twists and slaps followed while Dandelion, towering over his friend by a foot or more, found himself running from a small, feisty 23 year-old toddler with a colorful use of swears.

This short display of juvenile horseplay was familiar and usual of the two. So as they wrestled in the dirt and gravel, the third addition to their group looked on with rolling eyes.

“Surprise, surprise. Hawkbit an’ Dandelion fightin’ over some weed. High school ‘ll over again.” A third young man came up to join the two who found themselves on the ground, a ruined joint between them. Bringing a half-empty bottle up to his mouth he helped the two laughing boys up.

“Kiss my ass, Strawberry,” Hawkbit brushed himself off and buried the ruined end of his last smoke dejectedly with his shoe, “have any luck with Damiana?”

“No,” the larger boy grimaced and took another swig of a sugary, spiked drink, “I saw Toadflax all over her in the garage. And I bought two cases of this shit too. Fuck!” Dandelion caught the bottle as it flew from his friend’s hand.

“Alright Straw, how much of this have you had?”

“Half.”

“Half? Half of what?”

“Half. Of 24?”

“Oh God,” Dandelion’s chagrin, and short lecture, was then interrupted by a slamming door and small, heavy footsteps on the overhanging porch stairs that could only belong to the fourth and final member of the group. Hopping off the steps and over the side of the railing, their friend met them with crazed eyes and a wide, drunken smile that told them everything about his absence.

“And now the gang’s all here,” Taking one of the newly liberated bottles from their cooler, Hawkbit resumed his spot against one of the posts holding up the busy porch, “Dandelion ruined my last joint, Strawberry’s over Damiana, and we finally found Blackavar. Pretty successful night, let’s go now.” Hawkbit chugged his drink before realizing how much of a bad idea it was.

“Alright well, we’re not doing that.” Dandelion helped steady his larger, well-inebriated friend, and, leaning him up against the peeling wood of the steps, handed Strawberry’s keys to Hawkbit, “I still haven’t made out with a cute boy yet, and I think Strawberry has at least another two hours left in him.” Correctly punctuating Dandelion’s guess, the barrel-chested youth clung tighter in comfort to his friend.

“I think I’m gonna piss my pants, mate.”

“ _Good Saint Joseph.”_ Dandelion, with as much care as he could manage, flung his friend toward the opposite end of the dark yard.

As their friend wobbled off on unsteady legs toward a tree casting a large shadow over a corner of the front yard, the drunk and maniacally exuberant Blackavar disappeared once again—this time into the throbbing crowd packed into the small backyard to their left.

“Wonderful,” Hawkbit sighed, zipping his sweater higher and putting on his signature pout “I suppose you’re leaving too? Gotta go kiss that cute—”

“Hawk, I wouldn’t _want_ to leave if you’d stop being such an asshole.” With a deserved glare, Dandelion rolled his eyes at his oldest friend before handing him one of Strawberry’s forgotten spiked lemonades.

“I wouldn’t be an asshole if you’d let me alone, man.” Staring at the ground, Hawkbit kicked a pebble through a hole in the opposite chain link fence. “I told you I was fine.”

“That’s not what Blackavar tells me.” Dandelion snickered, sadly and with a sly grin.

“Wow,” the mop-haired mess let out a dismal laugh, “you ass.” The pair let out a sudden laugh at the thought of their quiet, unspeaking friend, Blackavar didn’t talk much but lived life more excitedly than any of their group. Clapping Dandelion on the shoulder, Hawkbit pulled his friend down from his full height and walked forward. “Look, mate, we’re gonna get you a hottie, let’s go pick us out one, I’ll be your wingman.”

With those words, before the two had turned the corner toward the backyard crowd, almost as if formed from the hum of the party and the warmth of the smoke, two figures appeared opposite them from around the corner of the house and began to stride lazily forward. The taller figure wore vibrant purple in their hair with a smattering of glitter along their temple and, upon meeting Dandelion’s gaze, stared back with bewitching intent after slyly joining arms with their companion, a shorter girl with pale blue eyes. The latter, Hawkbit noticed, had a laugh that rang out to him from yards away and, to his surprised dismay, fizzled to whispers as she and her companion spotted Dandelion and himself.

“You goin’ for the tall one?”, asked the girl.

“Yes, definitely.”, whispered that second figure. “Try and get his friend away from us, I want some alone time.” Running a hand effortlessly through their hair, the violet figure coyly strode toward the two boys, unknowingly bringing with them an ethereal quiet for the two boys as the house music and party lighting grew dim with their anticipation.

For a second, just a moment, the four simply stared at one another. Hawkbit could feel his hands disappearing, and his face, oop, and there went his legs— _when did girls get to be so pretty? Ugh. Who invented those fishnets she’s wearing? Frith bless ‘em._ While Hawkbit struggled to straighten out his thoughts, he couldn’t keep himself from stealing glances at the blonde girl illuminated by the overhead porch light. But, maybe it was just overthinking, maybe it was the weed, somewhere behind her smile, he realized she didn’t want to be there anymore than he did.

“Hey,” said the purple figure, “I’m Yew, this is my friend Clover. Fun party isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Hawkbit took a sip of his drink, “ ‘s great.”

A short silence followed, just for a second or two. It still sucked, though. Awkwardly, Clover let her smile slip for a second as she looked to her friend and searched for a fitting reply to keep everyone talking.

“We were just about to head out, I can’t keep up with this one for much longer.” She laughed, “You wouldn’t happen to like dancing, would you?” She asked Dandelion, giggling. As she spoke, the boys grew flustered all over again. Hawkbit, knowing his best friend was all bark and absolutely no bite, decided now would be as good a time as any to exercise his exclusive rights as wingman.

“Does Dandelion like to dance? Ha! Pshhhhh, tell her Dan,” Dandelion, in fact, could not tell her, “I bet Yew’d like to hear all about it, c’mon mate.” Then, like one pushing a tree across its roots, Hawkbit pushed his best friend to the backyard with Yew following immediately at his side, chattering and giggling enough for the two of them until they had reached the opposite fence line. Hawkbit watched his duties as wingman disappear as Dandelion slipped away into the night—hopefully with someone cute enough to break him out of his stupor. Yew’s hand wrapped around Dandelion’s as they moved steadily toward the DJ booth, leaving Hawkbit alone with his grumbling thoughts. Oh, and the hottest girl he’d seen all night who was now, also, without her friend.

“Well, I thought that would take way longer,” Hawkbit jumped as Clover, who had stayed back, walked up behind him and spoke with a yawn, “you think we’ll see either of them soon?”

“I hope so, I have work in the morning.” At that Clover let out a surprisingly hearty laugh Hawkbit couldn’t help but return.

“So what do you do? Burger King can’t lose an assistant manager for a day?” Clover sneered as Hawkbit made a face of disgust.

“Eugh, no, that was Jack in the Box, years ago, thank you very much. I work in a warehouse,” Hawkbit looked down at his shoes and played with the lighter in his pocket, “moving boxes n’ shit.”

“Oh, I see, so you’re the one I have to blame for roughing up my packages.” Clover met Hawkbit’s rising gaze with a smile and laughed at his flushed expression. He laughed with her and puffed up his chest.

“And I’m proud to do it.” The pair giggled and settled into an easy quiet as the house music’s thrum moved through the ground.

In these situations, shyly testing the waters with someone with whom one shares a naturally easy acquaintance can be a maze of downward gazes and half-begun sentences. For Hawkbit, this was always a hurdle set too high, often left uncrossed, but this girl, whoever she was, was, so far as he could feel, warmer than summer. Twice, in the short pocket of quiet between them, he had looked up only to accidentally meet her eyes and found himself nearly pulled head first into a field of a billion questions he could ask her. She was gorgeous, too, he couldn’t get over that. _Really_ gorgeous.

“You got cotton for ears?” Oh, damn, she had just asked him a question. _Maybe? Have I been staring at her this whole time?_

“I’m sorry, I think I do.” Clover smirked at his glassy-eyed stare. He was pretty cute for some bum at a house party, a bit stoned though, “What’d ya say?”

“I’m Clover,” She rolled her eyes and Hawkbit’s stomach did a somersault, “What’s your name?”

“Oh, I’m Hawkbit.”

“Hmm,” Clover hummed and the sound thrilled him. _Fuck._ “Well, Hawkbit, lucky enough for us I snatched Yew’s last joint, and I have a feeling you like to party. What do you say?”

 _Oh boy_. Hawkbit knew it wasn’t wise to get high with a stranger, especially one who could steal his wallet (all ten of his singles and his sandwich punch card) with little resistance. But parties were never his evening of choice. Smoking with a pretty girl, though? A _very_ pretty girl?

“Uhh, yeah, cool.”

Hawkbit lit up the spliff and, before he knew it, was on his back staring up at the smoky night sky.

&&&&&&&

“HA! Frith, you’re crazy!” Clover was on her side facing away from him, only briefly, clutching her sides from the fit of laughter that wracked her as they lay on the gentle incline of the hilled front yard. Hawkbit chuckled a bit to himself, he was _waaaaay_ too high, he might’ve been caught in a loop but he didn’t mind. _As long as she keeps laughing, it’s okay._

“So,” Clover had settled herself and passed the joint back to him, red in the face, “you stayed friends with a guy that kicked your ass? And you got a beer afterwards?”

“Yeah, I mean, he was cool. The Uber was awkward but he’s a good guy.” Hawkbit laughed to himself as he remembered being slammed into the dirt by one of his, now, closest friends. “Don’t tell him I said that, Blackavar’s kissed me once and he would do it again to get a rise out of me.” Hawkbit flicked away the butt end of their smoke and stole a glance over at Clover while she giggled—the whole world had stopped moving and he could feel a certain kind of smile creep onto his face, dimly and unfamiliar. _Wow, I wanna kiss you._

“I won’t stop you.”

Hawkbit shook his head. And then he shook it again. _Wait, what the fuck?_

“I’m sorry what’d you say? It sounded like-”

“I said I wouldn’t stop you if you kissed me.” Clover— _oh, wow, even her name is pretty—_ gazed back over at him with the same mischievous grin that had been driving him crazy before. It scared him. “But I can’t wait all night,” she sighed. Then, before he had time to think, Clover was kissing him.

She had rolled over to lean her arm across him as he lay in the damp grass and cupped his face (to keep him from melting, he guessed). When Clover kissed him, Hawkbit could feel time stop and wished desperately it would never move forward again. She kissed him slow and deep, licking his bottom lip and pressing herself against him so nicely he knew he could die there and be happy. In slow motion, Hawkbit brought his free hand up to grab her hair and groaned into a deeper kiss as she brought hers up to feel his chest. _Frith, she smells so good. Is this weird? Should I tell her she smells really good? No, idiot, no. But she does. And she feels so nice. I hope she likes it._ Clover let out a soft moan and tangled her own fingers in his hair before moving down to his neck. _Oh, hell yeah._

“Y’know, here I was thinking you were gonna steal my wallet or something. But this is a lot nicer.” The grin Hawkbit had splashed across his face dropped almost immediately after those words left his mouth—coincidentally the same moment Clover stopped her slow attack on his nape.

“Wait, what?” _Oh my god, you asshole. You didn’t._

“Wait, what?”

“No, you ‘what’? You said something. You thought I was gonna steal your wallet?” Clover, he could tell, was not going to want to keep making out.

“Uhm.”

Suddenly, and to his great relief, Hawkbit felt the familiar presence of his largest friend towering over the couple still laying in the grass. Strawberry, he thought, did not look so well.

“Oi, mate, I think we better go now.” Strawberry mumbled, then burped. “Blackavar’s about to get into another fight.” Hawkbit, feeling Clover move to sit up, sighed and rubbed his face. He suddenly felt almost very, very sober.

“Alright, alright, umm, go find him mate and we’ll take off.” Hawkbit stood up once he saw Clover had done the same and pushed his friend as the three of them stumbled back toward the porch and the dying music behind the house. Hawkbit could see Clover take out her phone and hang behind as he maneuvered his friend forward, _and what a way to lose her, asshole._

“There,” Hawkbit could see the familiar, petite form of their quick-tempered friend through the thinning crowd, and he was not optimistic about the opponent’s chances, “go grab him before he fucks that guy up. I don’t want to get on Toad’s bad side.”

“Dude, FUCK Toad, man.” And, with that final trumpet of his indignation, Strawberry keeled over and let go of fourteen vodka cruisers at once.

“ _Hraka._ ” Hawkbit was keeping a firm hold on the bridge of his nose before he felt a soft hand land on his shoulder. He turned to see Clover looking at him with kind eyes, smiling just as softly as she was pulling him close. She almost beckoned him to her before wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him in for a sweet kiss, something charged with energy and longing, something so wildly unfamiliar he wanted to spend the rest of his days exploring it. She pulled back before he did and left him breathless—he thought she seemed flustered too.

“You know, I wasn’t going to steal your wallet, right? I just thought you would be fun to hang with.” She hovered a foot off the ground; and when she pushed herself against him, he swore he must’ve felt his feet leave the ground too. _Maybe I’m not as sober as I thought._

“I will, however,” _Frith above, please stop pulling away,_ “steal your lighter.” _What?_ And then, with a twirl, she was spinning out of his arms and holding his lighter a clear foot or more above his head. “You can have this back when you take me out tomorrow.”

“WHAT?”

His only response was a giggle as she ran past him toward Yew and Dandelion. The pair were walking, almost dancing toward them with Yew clinging close to Dandelion’s waist—the two of them flushed and grinning. Clover ran to her friend’s side and, to Yew’s dismay, pulled them to her, leaving Dandelion alone and red-faced as she shouted something teasing toward the two.

Hawkbit was still smiling and rooted to his spot when Dandelion jogged up to him.

“Hawk, you were right, oh you’re the greatest wingman of all time!” Dandelion hugged his friend and nearly knocked the two of them over (Hawkbit, here, noted the sickly sweet punch that had spilled onto Dan’s top). “Yew was _amazing_ ,” Dandelion giddily whispered, “we’re meeting tomorrow for dinner and you’re coming with.” Hawkbit found himself locked into his best friend’s chest as he watched Clover and Yew walk arm in arm toward a small hatchback parked next door. Clover stopped before hopping into the driver’s side door and looked up with a smirk toward Hawkbit. Blowing a kiss, she gave him a taunting wave ‘goodbye’ before driving off. With his lighter. Held up in her hand. “Besides, _Clover will be there_.” Dandelion hissed behind a giggling smile.

“Dan.”

“Yeah, Hawkbaby?” Dandelion sighed dreamily, resting his cheek on a mess of ashy brown hair, swaying gently. Hawkbit could only close his eyes at the nickname.

“Please. I beg you, we need to find Blackavar.” Reluctantly, Dandelion released his friend and patted his head, much to Hawkbit’s annoyance.

Almost as if Frith had delivered him, Blackavar silently flew past them and barreled toward down the street toward their car parked a few houses down. This time both boys let out an exasperated sigh.

“I really didn’t want to run tonight.” Hawkbit reached behind himself and grabbed Strawberry by the collar, yanking him forward into a familiar sprint to leave a house party before their uncontrollable friend got them all killed.

As the four boys ran and stumbled down the street to their car, the house that had been shaking all night with dancing bodies and raucous laughter began to quiet and dim, save for the group of twelve young men running down the long driveway headed by one very angry fellow covered in dirt. For Hawkbit and his three best friends, this was a typical outing. Dandelion flushed from dancing, Strawberry sick, Blackavar running from some trouble. What wasn’t typical was the empty space where Hawkbit’s lighter should be and the lingering sensation of a girl pressed up against him while they kissed.

**Author's Note:**

> Rick, if you ever read this, I'm sorry they smoke weed and curse so much, lol. I'll let you read ahead if you promise not to be mad. Babe, if you really do read this, thank you, lol, I appreciate it. Love you bb <3


End file.
